a sporty Wear OS watch with excellent battery life

After the success of the Ticwatch Pro 5 as well as its Enduro version, Mobvoi continues its momentum with the Atlas. This connected watch, resolutely geared towards sport, incorporates the ingredients of the success of its predecessors and in particular the ingenious dual screen system aimed at saving battery. We tried it and here is our opinion on this model.

Technical sheet

The watch for this test was provided to us by the manufacturer.

Very sporty lines that inspire robustness

Mobvoi remains faithful to its lines with the Ticwatch Atlas: the case is made in a round shape and the design is sporty, in a register comparable to that of the Ticwatch Pro 5. However, the manufacturer gives this model an even more active look by adding a notched and graduated bezel, but not rotating, still having the effect of protecting the screen since it overhangs it.

The 24 mm bracelet also recalls the field of sport with a fluorinated rubber design, which gives it unfailing flexibility. About this bracelet, it attaches to the case using a standard lug system. In other words, it is possible to replace it with any bracelet on the market, provided that the width of 24 mm is respected.

Concerning the case itself, it has dimensions of 52.2 x 47.8 x 12.05 mm and weighs 47.2 g (without the bracelet). Although it matches the round shape of the screen, we notice a slight protrusion on the side, which makes the watch wider on the wrist.

In the same vein, we note some details which adorn the side edges of the case: streaks engraved on what appears to be a “ fake button » or even fake screws. Quite well done, these details once again reinforce the sporty aspect of this connected watch.

An ingenious dual screen to extend battery life

The Ticwatch Atlas display actually consists of two screens. The main one is a 1.43 inch OLED panel and is used for active use of the watch. The second is a very low power LCD screen, which activates when the watch is not in use. As a result, Ticwatch extends the autonomy of the device, exactly as it does with its Pro 5 Enduro model that we previously tested. If this system makes it possible to achieve record scores in terms of autonomy, it nevertheless demonstrates a weak point: the energy-efficient screen is very sensitive to reflections and practically unreadable in direct sunlight.

Concerning the 1.43 inch OLED panel, it has a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels for a density of 326 pixels per inch. Unlike the energy-efficient on-board screen, its maximum brightness is more than sufficient to consult information (including the time) in direct sunlight.

These two screens are protected by a sapphire-type glass which closes the dial. It is a material that is very resistant to scratches and is found on mid-range models in traditional watchmaking. A smart choice and not a small luxury, especially on a watch geared towards outdoor sports.

In addition to the dual screen system aimed at extending battery life, the Ticwatch Atlas offers an always-on mode which only uses the watch's OLED panel. You may have guessed it, although more aesthetic, this always-on mode inevitably reduces the interval between two recharges.

Fluidity and third-party applications available

The Ticwatch Atlas works on the basis of a Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 processor, supported by 2 GB of RAM. This is one of the most common processors on watches equipped with the Wear OS 4.0 operating system. The whole thing benefits from very fluid navigation in the different menus of the Ticwatch Atlas. This model also includes 32 GB of storage, a useful point for users who want to store music or maps to use GPS offline. An announced storage space which, however, remains to be qualified: the Wear OS system already occupies part of it.

To work, the Ticwatch Atlas requires being paired with its companion application on an Android smartphone. Let's emphasize this point, Android and not iOS: due to its operation with Wear OS, this connected watch is not compatible with the iPhone.

This companion application — Mobvoi Health, available on the Play Store — will allow you to view the history of data and measurements recorded by the watch. Once the device is configured, note that you can install any application compatible with Wear OS connected watches directly from the Google Play Store. This feature of the operating system allows the Ticwatch Atlas to install third-party applications, which greatly extends its functionality. We find Spotify, Strava, Runtastic, Citymapper, Google Maps and WhatsApp to name a few.

If navigation on the watch interface is clear and quite intuitive, this point is slightly contrasted with regard to the companion application. Some menus are still poorly translated, which can make it difficult for novice users to understand certain parameters. This remains a detail and in no way hinders the good handling of the watch.

Overall reliable sports measurements

The Ticwatch Atlas, like the overwhelming majority of connected watches, allows you to total the number of steps taken during the day. In addition to this essential point, it measures the heart rate, the blood oxygen saturation level as well as the stress level of its user.

The accuracy of the Ticwatch Atlas GPS

We checked the consistency of the GPS of the Ticwatch Atlas. To do this, we recorded the trace from the Ticwatch chip and compared it to GPS measurements from a Google Pixel 7 smartphone on the same output.

As shown in the image above, despite a slight inconsistency where the Ticwatch Atlas (in blue) makes me take a small shortcut that I didn't take, the majority of the ride is very reliable.

By zooming in on the traces, we observe that the two devices agree on their GPS measurements.

The heart rate accuracy of the Ticwatch Atlas

In the same vein as the Atlas GPS test, we verified a key piece of data for connected watches: the reliability of heart rate measurement.

We followed our usual protocol in this regard: we retrieved the cardiac data from the watch during training. We then compared them to measurements recorded on a Garmin HRM Pro Plus contact heart rate belt, known for its reliability and extremely low latency due to its electrocardiogram operation.

As this graph shows, the watch proves to be quite reliable overall. However, we note some inconsistencies, periods where the watch does not capture the evolution of cardiac intensity, or even where it invents peaks of increase in effort. However, nothing too disturbing for the non-perfectionist athlete, the Ticwatch Atlas generally follows the evolution of the variations with good consistency. The average difference between the Atlas and the Garmin HRM Pro Plus over the entire training is barely 0.13%, which reinforces our confidence in the data measured by this connected watch.

The sports and health functions of the Ticwatch Atlas

In the Ticwatch Atlas, Mobvoi integrates more than 110 training modes, with tracking of a multitude of sports on the wrist. If running, cycling, skiing, walking and all frequent activities are listed, some follow-ups may make you smile… like exercising “ touching opposite toes standing “. Note, however, that if this translation is far from being free of spelling errors, it could have simply been renamed “ Stretching » par Ticwatch.

Excellent battery life for a WearOS watch

TicWatch says the Atlas can run for up to 90 hours on a single charge. We wanted to check the autonomy of this connected watch in real conditions of use.

Here are our measurements from 100% to 0% over two battery cycles using the always-on AMOLED screen without the monochrome LCD, then the reverse. For these two cycles, we applied the following parameters:

• Continuous heart rate monitoring;
• Continuous monitoring of blood oxygen levels;
• Adaptive brightness;
• A thirty-minute workout with active GPS tracking;
• Wearing the watch 24/7.

For the first cycle where we disabled the ultra-low power consumption monochrome LCD in favor of the always-on AMOLED, the watch discharged in 44 hours.

For the second cycle, we deactivated the AMOLED screen for always-on, which was replaced by the monochrome LCD display. The watch discharged in 56 hours.

These measures raise the Ticwatch Atlas to the rank of Wear OS watches which develop the best autonomy on the market currently. This endurance is also reminiscent of the Watch 2R from the manufacturer OnePlus.

Charging from 0 to 100% takes place in one hour using the USB cable with Mobvoi's proprietary magnetic connector.

Call and communication

The TicWatch Atlas allows you to make calls on the wrist, provided the smartphone is within Bluetooth range, since it does not have eSIM functionality. We nevertheless regret the output volume, which requires being in a quiet place in order to hear the person on the phone, if you make a call from the watch.

This watch also has a Wi-Fi chip, NFC and a multi-GNSS navigation system: GPS, BeiDou, Galileo, Glonass and GZSS. However, it is not available in a 4G version, but does offer NFC for contactless payment.

Price and release date

The TicWatch Atlas is available now in silver gray and black starting at 359.99 euros.